Actually, as Curtis argues, nostalgia formed the basis of Trivial Pursuit's appeal from the moment it was released in 1982: The game concerns itself with useless information, yes, but useless information of a very specific sort: detritus from the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s, which flattered the baby boomer by making his golden years seem vital, even historic.
Certainly not the sort of detritus I wanted those boys to sift through if I died before I woke.
"Along an unmoving walkway, one could see shoes, clothing, and abandoned suitcases, the sort of detritus one might see after an actual terror attack," he wrote.
Along an unmoving walkway, one could see shoes, clothing, and abandoned suitcases, the sort of detritus one might encounter after an actual terror attack.
The wind blows around all sorts of detritus and threatens their home behind the white curtain, which flaps around exposing those inside.
But Norris gives us an instant picture of the Annawadi undercity where young scavengers survive by stealing, picking through and sorting the detritus from the airport and the nearby hotels.
In this vast open yard where hundreds of small traders in paper, metal, cardboard and plastics sort through the detritus of life in Beijing, unmarked trucks from hospitals and clinics routinely deliver syringes, blood bags and IV tubes, often with fresh blood still clinging to the side.
Others wake up to the gray Los Angeles dawn and sort through the detritus of the weekend -- the crumpled valet parking stubs, the strange skin-care products handed out in party goody bags, the cocktail napkins stained with the grease of too many minicrabcakes -- in search of, how to say it, meaning.
The central bank said Wednesday it will allow so-called primary dealers like Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers to access its emergency borrowing window for an extra four months, through Jan . 30 , 2009giving them additional time to sort through the detritus of the credit crisis.
What makes Brandon Downing's use of the technique notable is that it is purely performative--the sort of aesthetic detritus that contributes to a poetics rather than "mere" semantic sense.
"It is a liquidation of sorts of the detritus of the estate," he explained.
